When the dark wood fell before me [OPEN; multiple threads welcome!]

[notalighieri]

The battle at the barracks and it's subsequent end had been one hell of a party. Suspenseful, loud and violent; with a crazy kicker for the final act... -everything a half-demon could ask for in terms of entertainment and exercise. More or less, at any rate. Could have had more demons and more gates leading home but hey

Comments

[incaution]

"You look about as bad as I did a few weeks ago." Jo's voice rings out from behind him, and there's a soft laugh as the sound of her boots hitting the ground is heard. She moves to sit on the edge of the water and dips her feet in, and kicks her foot so she can splash him.

"At least you're doing better in the hygiene department than me. You have the common sense to wash out blood when it's fresh."

She, on the other hand, is stuck in dirty and bloody clothes that have more holes and tears in them than she can deal with.

"You need some help with your hair there, Rambo?"

[notalighieri]

The sound of her voice causes him to freeze, if but for the blink of an eye. Drat. Sure enough he wanted to check up on her but not hang out. Not now. He relaxes and puts on that casual aloof poker face with a scoop of water to rub the blood from his face. He snorts at her comment.

"Hey years of experience got me wise, baby." He lets out a laugh and wipes his face before looking at her. "Can't wait to get your hand son me huh?" He smirks and winks--but it's probably just a tease in response to the Rambo comment because he drops it and continues, "You're lookin' good today, something happened?" Aside the whole monster slaughter and y'know..

[incaution]

"I'm looking better." She points out with a shrug, not really inclined to say if anything did or didn't happen, mostly because nothing did. "Guess moping around forever just doesn't suit me. My mom would've kicked my ass weeks ago if she was here." Another shrug follows, and she forces herself to look entirely unimpressed.

"Wanna fess up to how you ended up looking like this?"

[notalighieri]

"I like the way your mum's way of thinking." He smirks and sinks down into the water to rub his arms. He remembers she said her mother had died, but some people never quite leave you do they.

Dante purses his lips in an indifferent pout and shrugs. "Oh, jus' fightin'. Someone needed to do do somethin' drastic 'bout that monster siege." He examines a scar or bruise-like mark on his right arm and frowns. Scratching at it he tears the partly healed flesh fresh open and digs out a splinter. He flicks it to the side with a glare and continues to rub the blood away. "Then I continued to fight those things for a few days in the forest."

Fighting in the woods and starving to kill addiction--Oh y'know, nothing special. He shrugs again, in clear avoidance.

[paterelohim]

Chuck is sitting Indian-style in some weird corner of the barracks, passing the time by writing the same line from The Raven over and over to try and recapture his high school cursive. There's fairly obvious tension and stress in his movements. They're too controlled and too precise for him, especially drunk him.

When a noise and something in the distance distracts him, he almost yelps in surprise, and sort of charges at Dante. "Holy shit!" It's a close thing that he catches himself in time, stopping short of the other man and going in for a bro-hug double-fist back-tap combo. Or... you know, whatever. "Dante? Dude. I th-"

Then Chuck punches him hard in the arm. Okay, hard for him. Which isn't very. He doesn't especially care that the guy's looking worse for wear. "You're a douche. I thought you got fucking fairy-napped."

[notalighieri]

Of all the possible scenarios of 'welcome back' he might have expected, this was not one. Dante blinks, surprised at Chuck's outburst and just looks at the man. The punch barely registers as he's too busy feeling a bit stupid. The only reason people got pissed when he disappeared tended to be because he owed them money, or they otherwise needed him. For all his bitching that people need to think of others' feelings when they do stupid shit.. he didn't really connect the dots that maybe that'd include him too.

"Uh.. Nope. Not fairy napped. Just.. been busy killin' monsters and getting stomped on." He reaches up and awkwardly rubs his neck.

[paterelohim]

"St-stomped on?" Chuck looks severely unimpressed. "Wait, you got squished by the Incredible fucking Hulk?"

This clearly calls for moar booze. Which he then offers to Dante, however grudgingly, because dude looks like he needs it.

[notalighieri]

Queue more awkward neck-rubbing. "Er yea--" He gives Chuck a questioning look. "Incredible Hulk? The fuck crazy name is that? .. I'm guessing you mean the big green angry thing... and yeah got stomped on but if you didn't see it uuuh--forget it... right."

The booze is accepted with a grateful smile and a sigh. Thanks man. Really. He knocks the flask back and drinks several mouthfuls, ending with a satisfied cough and shake of the head. "Dude! I needed that. Thanks..." he hands the bottle back and rubs his face with one hand, smirking. Oh man, right.. not eaten for heck knows how long. This is going to go right to his head.

[mutings]

Nill is out alone, an occurrence that is most likely going to get her lectured after she returns home. She's still not back to her old strength just yet, but she's not entirely weak either, and so she spends the afternoon wandering around the inside of the barracks. She finds a few bottles that are dirty, and heads to the stream to clean them. When she sees Dante there, she smiles just a little, and watches him for a moment before setting aside her bottles.

She wastes no time in running to jump into the water, since she's barefoot and in such a thin dress to begin with. The water is cold and her mouth opens in shock, and she shivers as she wades out to stand before Dante.

She offers him a wave, but not a smile just yet, she's curious to see if he remembers who she is.

[notalighieri]

The sound of the splashing water is deafening his senses as he's busy scrubbing his hair and face, but when she enters the water he notices. Dante freezes and looks up. Nill.

He's surprised to see her outside. Still, there's a strange relief washing over him that she looks fine. Then he realizes he's half-naked and still mostly covered in blood. Aw, crap--

A number of emotions flickers across his face as if he's not sure how to react and can't quite cover it up until he's decided. Surprise, shock, slight deer-in-headlights panic... He settles for general awkwardness and manages a smile with badly hidden embarrassment to go with waving back.

"Nill. Hey~"

[mutings]

She's polite enough to just ignore his awkwardness, and instead smiles just a little, and wades in closer to him. The fact that she doesn't blink at the blood or the fact he's half naked says a lot about the place that she came from, and instead of frowning at the sight of so much red on him and in the water, she gets in close enough to bring a hand to his face to wipe at it.

He really needs someone to take good care of him, she thinks.

Her head tips to the side and she glances up at him, unsure of if she's overstepping her bounds.

[notalighieri]

Her lack of fear at the sight of the blood is noted, and he understands. More than he'd like to. Dante's shoulders drop with a sigh and he offers her a sad, and tired, little smile. Yeah... he really could need someone to take care of him. It would be nice wouldn't it. But it's not going to happen.

"Nice to see you're ok, Nill." He smiles and brings a hand up to his face and continues to wipe off what little she missed. But as he glances down at the water he frowns, and looks back at her. "You're gonna get sick if you jump into cold n' dirty water, girl!"

It's a half-hearted reprimand because he's still smiling. He moves slowly, to not spook her, and reaches out to place his hands on her waist; and gently pick her up and carry her back the few steps to dry land.

/late

[numbersnfigures]

Now that the weather was starting to turn a bit warmer, Spencer had taken to sitting on his porch more frequently. Being inside was still more comfortable, but he found that this was much more conducive to collecting information - something he felt he needed a lot of right now. Ever since the monsters had gathered at the gate, he had been trying to soak up everything that he could about them.

He glanced up to see Dante walking by, soaking wet, his clothes tinged a dark reddish-brown. Dante must have bathed in the stream, which was...

"Have you been outside?"

/laterrr, omg life and DDoS attacks 8(

[notalighieri]

"Slaughterin' monsters, bathin' off blood... Oh yeah. Outside. It's where the party's at, science boy!"

Dante slowed his steps and waved a hand in the air dismissively, eh y'know the usual. He grinned as he answered with the usual joking banter, but his voice held an undertone of exhaustion and the humour war bone dry. It'd been some long days lately man.

After a bit he slowed to a stop and glanced back at Spencer. The young doctor rather got on his nerves but it was a relief that he appeared unharmed. Some people should be kept away from the battlefield if possible, he always figured. For several reasons; They did better on the sidelines, and it was sad enough to watch ready soldiers die gruesome deaths -even more so people who didn't call fighting their second home. Dante excused his troublesome 'caring' with that it was really just selfish because he hated seeing decent and regular people turn into collateral. Right.

"I hear it's still pretty wild out there so better stay put, dude."

[numbersnfigures]

"Wha- you went out there?!"

There had been so many and he was just one person. How had he come back moderately unscathed? Spencer had no intentions of going out there without a plan, and his primary weapon was his mind. Monsters who didn't speak English would not understand reason. His secondary weapon was a .38 Smith that held 6 rounds - the pitfalls of carrying a revolver instead of Glock. That said, he rarely used it. His brain was his main weapon for a reason.

[notalighieri]

Dante stooped. After a moment he turned around fully to give Spencer a look that suggested was holding back the urge to explain what should be obvious in a voice that a child would understand.

After a looong pause he reached back and plucked the 4-5 feet big ass sword from it's resting place holstered to his back. He held it in his right hand and pointed at it as casual as a baseball coach instructing a child to what a bat is; showing no sign of stress at the weight